


Live at the Arena

by The_Exile



Category: Star Ocean: The Second Story | Second Evolution
Genre: Arena, Awkwardness, Bad-ass, Dragons, Friendship, Gen, Post-Game(s), Symbiotic Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-09
Updated: 2019-03-09
Packaged: 2019-11-14 09:06:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18049592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Exile/pseuds/The_Exile
Summary: Ashton is learning to bond better with his dragons to become a more effective team. They often practice in the Lacour Arena. His friends all turn up to help him.





	Live at the Arena

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Opalsong](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Opalsong/gifts).



Ashton looked up at the retreating Shadow Phoenix who now cowered in the corner of the symbological force field that surrounded the Arena's ceiling, its blood dripping from his twin shortswords, and still couldn't quite believe it was him that defeated it. The roaring of the crowds reminded him of a stormy sea, as if he were on the beach looking out at a tidal wave that had been far away but was now quite rapidly approaching him, about to swallow him. The dragons were keening and thrashing about as well, trying to outdo the crowd for noise with only the two of them. The situation probably made a lot more sense to them: just like they had done during their adventures with him, they'd fought hard and defeated their opponent and were now being praised, which gave them the right to preen. They didn't waste their time worrying about things like being in front of a crowd and potentially embarassing themselves and feeling like they were cheating by technically being three fighters against one. 

Knowing his two symbiotic friends, they'd probably been more aware during the battle anyway. They tended to take over in a crisis, their animal instincts sharper, their reflexes faster, their fury much more savage. Sometimes he'd find himself in a field full of dead monsters and not really remember what had happened other than maybe Celine had cried out or he'd felt a sudden tingle down his spine or a rush of adrenaline. The dragons would be going crazy and spewing jets of cobalt and ruby flame in all directions, leaving him as completely confused as ever. 

It didn't happen as much these days, not now that he had friends to help him control it. Dias was training him to be a better warrior in general, to maintain a deadly calm of his own in battle, to have stronger control over his will that would make him a more skilled fighter even when he wasn't trying to rein in an angry possessing demon. Ashton had progressed with his help, to the point where their duels were fairly even matches these days, lasting for a while, even though Dias still usually won. Leon and Celine, who often partnered for projects these days, Leon getting dragged along on treasure hunts and Celine being forced to actually study the theory behind her magical talents, had devised rituals to make Ashton more spiritually attuned to his dragons. Where they'd once reluctantly helped him on his quest to exorcise them, they were now happily finding ways to strengthen their bond, make them work better as one unit, until their insistent complains were now always in his head, like two big cats constantly on his shoulder, whining for food. Noel sometimes came along to these meetings as well to check the dragons weren't being harmed in these magical experiments - no such safeguards existed to protect unlucky adventurers, he noted - as well as to monitor their behaviour purely as animals and give advice on how they could be tamed. 

This had proven difficult as they weren't really animals at all.   
Their level of intelligence was easily a match for their host, held back only by very strong instincts and impulses, so that they couldn't help shoving their heads into interesting tight spaces or arguing over sparkly objects or breathing fire when angered. They also had the same problem as him, of course - that they were now fused to a human's back, with the added humiliation of being a tenth of their original size, with most of their torso replaced by his own, so that they only really had two heads on long necks. Despite having been two heads on one body before the incident, they also seemed to be constantly uncomfortable with each other's presence. Rena, who had an odd empathy for the creatures that Ashton could only guess was a healer's practiced intuition for people's ills and concerns, had explained that they weren't behaving like this before the possession, that something about their change in state had affected their sense of identity. Before they'd just been an animal with two heads, now they were starting to develop separate personalities - nobody was sure if this because they lacked some central brain that had been inside the main body, that they had been forced to develop a concept of not-themselves in order to distinguish themselves from Ashton, or maybe it was just because the girls had immediately given them separate names and ascribed separate identities to them, and the dragons were very suggestible when it came to pretty girls giving them attention. Whatever the case, Rena's presence was very useful in calming the dragons down when they randomly objected to something in the training sessions, as well as encouraging them to work together and with Ashton as three individuals who were close to each other, without constantly worrying that the other two were trying to get rid of them or subsume their identity.

Once they had decided that the three weren't a complete liability, Leon had used some of his contacts within the palace to get Ashton authorised to register in the arena. If the judges felt that it was unfair that Ashton had two dragons helping him, the party could help set up more appropriate challenges for him. Between them, they could capture some larger beasts for him to fight. Leon had plans to reinforce the shields around the arena, make a magical assault course for him, maybe even create some enormous Battle Golems with Precis' technological help. Or, Dias suggested, they could just have him fight three people at once. The Arena masters had been surprised at all this, as it had never actually been a problem for Ashton to register apart from in his own anxious imagination. True, his dragons made him stronger than average, but the combatants all had some kind of specialist skill or gimmick. If Precis' robots were allowed, or Celine's powerful symbology, or Opera's advanced armour and weaponry from another world, then the dragons were allowed. However, the offer of capturing them a dangerous monster was appreciated, especially as Ashton was rapidly working his way up the ranks of combatants who were supposed to be an equal match for him. Dias and Claude were the only reliable opponents who could actually give him a run for his money. 

When asked about this in interviews, Ashton tended to look pale, then shrug and explain that he still felt as though he was cheating somehow, so couldn't claim the credit - either that or he had an unfair advantage because they'd had to fight so many of these during their ascent of Fienal Tower, they all knew the tactics backwards. Dias had later smacked him upside the head and told him that his excuses sounded like false modesty that was really bragging. Claude would defend him, saying that the crowd loved that kind of thing and that they would assume it was all an act anyway, that he'd completely made up the quest and that possibly the dragons weren't even real. Ashton was never sure what to think about this. He eventually decided that it didn't matter as long as he was getting on better with the dragons, he was making a steady wage, his friends were still being held together by a common goal rather than vanishing off to their completely separate life, and maybe, just maybe, his confidence was getting slightly better.


End file.
